Can data center technologies get some of the rebates that have been driving low-tech solutions for the drought?

California prides itself on being the global hub for tech innovation, and it has been aiming to accelerate use of cutting-edge technology to face its historic drought. However, in the first year since California’s governor declared a state of emergency as a result of the drought, most of its cash has been spent on non-tech solutions. In Southern California alone, the Metropolitan Water District has quadrupled its budget to $450M this year for lawn turf replacement. So far, innovative start-ups aren’t applying advanced science and engineering, but rather spraying green paint to cover brown lawns.

As corporations in California face the drought crisis, new technologies for data center cooling offer an opportunity for them to migrate away from water-intensive cooling. Every new data center brings a thirsty customer. A midsize 15-megawatt center uses between 80 million and 130 million gallons of water a year for cooling, according to industry estimates “At the high end of that range, each new facility is akin to planting 100 acres of almond trees, adding three hospitals or opening more than two 18-hole golf courses,” notes Drew Fitzgerald of the Wall Street Journal. California has more than 800 data centers, the most of any state, according to an estimate by tech consultancy 451 Research LLC that excludes smaller computer rooms that businesses use. Based on that and estimates for water use, the state’s data centers consume roughly as much water in a year as 158,000 Olympic sized swimming pools.

Even with their substantial growth over the last few years, data centers still use less than 1% of the water in California, as compared with 80% used by agriculture. At the same time, subsidizing migration away from water cooling data centers offers California a way to reduce water use right now, and save millions of gallons over the years to come.

By U.S. Central Intelligence Agency [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsWhile press attention focuses upon the challenges to worldwide stability from the Middle East and Africa, the US military is also contending with a second, more significant set of tests in South East Asia. read more…

Water management will be critical to the US to realize the “once-in-a-generation opportunity” brought by innovations in unconventional oil and gas production,” according to a new report by Harvard Business School and the Boston Consulting Group America’s Unconventional Energy Opportunity. read more…

Apple extended its leadership in sustainable water on Tuesday when Santa Clara Valley Water District voted to approve a $17.5 million project that will channel more recycled water to the parched South Bay. While the company will only use 3% of the recycled water delivered through the pipeline, it is covering $4.8M of the $17.0 M project. Like many cities in California, Santa Clara is already producing reclaimed water in a plant built many years ago, but its been stumped by the costs of delivering water to users. A majority of the $17.0 M will go toward a 13,300 foot pipeline. On average, building new pipelines from big water plants to water users like the Apple campus cost between $1.0M – $2.0M per mile.

Its exciting to see Apple extend its environmental leadership beyond clean energy into water. In driving new approaches, Apple’s Vice President of Environmental Initiatives Lisa Jackson brings unique qualifications. As the former head of the USEPA, Jackson understands the value of tech-driven water solutions, such as onsite water reclaim.